Success in the Apricot Balancing Act

With California Ag Today, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

After years of removing trees, California’s remaining apricot growers say they have found a balance between supply and demand, allowing the crop to be profitable. From the California Farm Bureau, they report that the downward trend in production has reduced the sector to a fraction of what it once was, even though the Golden State remains the nation’s top producer of apricots.

So many apricot orchards have vanished that even a slight increase in acreage could “bump you back up into an oversupply situation,” said Stanislaus County grower Daniel Bays, who serves as president of Apricot Producers of California.

“Our big challenge as an industry is to try and grow consumer demand before we go hog wild planting newer additional acres of apricots,” Bays said.

From the organization, the brief harvest takes place in June most years – emphasis on “most” years there, with the fresh season lasting only weeks. They encourage you to enjoy the bounty of the annual summer’s harvest fresh, when available, but add that the freezing, canning and drying processes lock in those summer flavors and nutrients at their peak so you and others can enjoy these power-packed fruits year-round.